Way back in 2009, I was greatly assisted by neowin and built my first rig. A lot has happened since then, and now I would like to get up to speed by making a few key upgrades, my only question is though if I can hang on to my old cpu and mobo, upgrade the gpu, ram (and then power supply as well) will I see better performance, or inevitably, will the old CPU be a drain on my rig?

Depending on what graphics card you have, you may see some differences. If your graphics card is from 2009, you'll probably see an improvement, but your CPU will ultimately hold you back. But, yeah all those parts are compatible.

Depending on what graphics card you have, you may see some differences. If your graphics card is from 2009, you'll probably see an improvement, but your CPU will ultimately hold you back. But, yeah all those parts are compatible.

Another side of the issue is I havent used the machine since late 2011. I left the country and allowed my family to use the rig and when i got back to the states it was riddled with viruses. I have been using my laptop ever since i got back. So as far as what performance was like back then, I remember playing deus ex human revolution and it struggled quite a bit. I am really starting to consider just starting from scratch, but the minor parts really start to add up...hmmm

Mine's going to virtually cost me over £2000 (well over $3100 US) and that's using some of the parts in the maching I'm using right now (ram and hard drives mostly, everything else is far too old)

To address the virus issue, use kaspersky rootkit remover, malwarebytes, spybot search and destroy and a reputable internet security suite and you should be able to get that machine to some degree, back to it's former glory

I never had any problems with that, but you leave town for a few months, mom starts checking her old people chain e-mails and bang, it's a paper weight. I would have just re-installed the operating system but that is another long story I don't want to get into

Either way I think I have decided to fix this rig, get it operational, and give it to my family to lovingly destroy till the end of time. I am going to move on and maybe start putting together a 4th gen i5 based rig for the future I am seeing a lot of deals I missed before and it is looking quite doable Thanks for your input guys!

An upgrade process I often do is buy a reasonable motherboard but then buy lower spec stuff around it so that you have scope to upgrade down the line. So in the case of my last upgrade I bought the motherboard and the RAM (as RAM seems cheap at the moment) but then only bought a $100 Core i5 CPU - my intention being a few months down the line, when my cash flow was recovered, I could splash out on a decent Core i7 or similar. Then you can also sell the old CPU to put towards the new CPU purchase.

Done this a few times now and always been able to breathe new life into the system with a CPU upgrade later on down the line!